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Editorial

Flyover country

Poor judgment — or politics — denied Ohio a drone-testing site

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Thursday January 9, 2014 5:35 AM

The federal government’s decision to skip over Ohio — and the entire Midwest — for a drone test
site appears to be a political calculation, and one that will serve the nation poorly.

The test sites are to develop rules, craft public policy and test protocols as the nation
prepares to open its skies for the nonmilitary use of drones. This will require solving such thorny
problems as preventing drones from striking other aircraft, getting hacked or being used for
unwarranted snooping.

Particularly galling was the Federal Aviation Administration’s explanation last week that the
six winners, from a field of finalists representing 24 states, were selected partly on geographic
and climate diversity.

The FAA must have been gazing at a map of the beltway. Among the winners were states represented
by the two most powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The four other states that will form the new national network for testing unmanned aerial
vehicles are Virginia, North Dakota, Alaska and Texas.

The FAA chose two states on the Atlantic coast and four states west of the Mississippi. Middle
America was cut out.

Ohio and Indiana teamed up to propose a joint effort to host the program. No such luck. As a
result, Ohio and Indiana residents also were cut out of jobs. Experts expect drones to become an
$80 billion economic engine, generating tens of thousands of jobs.

And never mind that Ohio already has a leg up in this field: Advanced drone research and
development already is well under way in Ohio at places such as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, GE
Aviation and NASA Glenn.

The year-end decision isn’t merely disappointing. It is another slap at the heartland, less than
two years after NASA bypassed Dayton’s National Museum of the U.S. Air Force as a home for a
retired space shuttle. One went, instead, to New York City, so as to make it easier for
international tourists — rather than the American taxpayers who’d supported the space program — to
view it.

“This administration has had an abysmal record of absolutely political decision-making,” said
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton. He’s not the only one who thinks politics are at play in this
decision.

Former Springfield congressman Dave Hobson said, “They left out the major base in the country
that’s doing research in all this stuff.”

Ohio officials had mounted a strong effort to win one of the sites. Gov. John Kasich brought in
Indiana as a partner and hired lobbyists, and Ohio’s congressional delegation united across party
lines to support the selection.

While the FAA’s snub is a setback for both states, it is a poor decision because it deprives the
nation of a testing ground where expertise already is in place. In a Jan. 3 letter, Rep. Turner
told the FAA that its decision “could lead to redundancy and an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars
by attempting to recreate already existing infrastructure and research initiatives” in Ohio.

“Most importantly,” he wrote, “I believe the FAA’s site selections could lead to the development
of an unsafe domestic airspace environment by not properly incorporating and utilizing the unique
expertise of communities like Dayton.”